Analysis & Commentary - Iran Human Rights Project
Rowhani Is a Tool of Iran’s Rulers
The odds are poor that the election of Hassan Rowhani to the presidency will change Iranian society or diminish the power of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei and his praetorians... more...
Why You Shouldn’t Get Too Excited About Rouhani
Good riddance: The end of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad era should be welcomed by all who want to see a free and democratic Iran and a peaceful resolution to the ongoing... more...
Iran Has a Presidential Selection, Not an Election
"Some people may, for whatever reason, not desire to support the regime of the Islamic Republic, but they certainly want to support their country," said Iran's Supreme Leader... more...
Iran’s Meaningless Presidential Elections
The Islamic Republic of Iran is holding its eleventh presidential election on Friday. It’s all very exciting — just as it was in 1979 when, right after the Iranian Revolution... more...
Embracing the Stone Age: Iran Retains Medieval Penalty for Adultery
Iran just doesn't want to leave the Stone Age. The Islamic Republic's Sharia law-controlled judiciary dismissed the concerns of critics of its barbaric penal system and voted to... more...
Canadian MPs Decry Iran Human Rights Violations
Canada’s Parliament hosted Iran Accountability Week last week, documenting the Islamic Republic’s human rights violations, particularly its clerical leadership’s use of domestic and international... more...
Iranian Sex and Circuses
Ronald Reagan used to marvel at the tendency of intellectuals and diplomats to get so involved in “understanding” other countries and cultures, no matter how hostile to the USA... more...
Why Iran’s Elections Will Not Be Democratic
Six hundred and eighty six Iranian citizens have registered as candidates for the eleventh presidential elections scheduled to be held in Iran on Friday, June 14, 2013. more...
Report Finds Iran Among Worst Violators of Religious Freedom
Religious freedom is in short supply in the Middle East, according to the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which has issued a report finding Iran chief... more...
A Third Way to Address the Iranian Threat
With an Iranian presidential election coming in June, President Obama may be presented with a second chance to get his policy right. In 2009, when massive protests followed Iran's disputed presidential vote... more...
Gay—or Left?
On July 19, 2005, authorities in the Iranian city of Mashhad publicly lynched two teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, for the alleged crime of raping a 13-year-old boy. Horrific pictures of the execution... more...
Nursing Mothers Imprisoned: UN Report Details Iranian Persecution of Non-Muslims
Iran’s hard-line regime has intensified its violent crackdown on Christians and other religious minorities, even imprisoning nursing mothers for practicing their faith, according to a new... more...
UN Report Reveals Iranian Violence Against Bahais
Two new studies have disclosed state-sponsored violence directed at the Bahai religious minority in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Ahmed Shaheed, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, announced the findings of his report last week in Geneva. more...
For Iran, the Holocaust is Just Another Tragedy - If It Ever Happened
Iran apologists contend that the Iranian regime behaves rationally and is therefore a fitting partner for nuclear negotiations. But there is nothing rational in Tehran's constant embrace of virulent anti-Semitism and outright Holocaust denial. more...
The Religious Fascism Was No Big Surprise
Houshang Asadi plaintively writes that, as of the moment of the fall of the shah of Iran and the imminent return of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Tehran in 1979, nobody—not even the best journalists in the country... more...
American Pastor Jailed in Iran Faces Torture
The family of American-Iranian pastor Saeed Abedini released a letter from him on Thursday stating that Iranian authorities have threatened him with death because of his belief in Christianity. more...
German MPs Do Business with Iran
European politicians in Brussels and Berlin have unleashed a storm of criticism over their planned trips to meet representatives of Iran’s regime. A group of five left-wing MEPs had been slated to go... more...
Hague Tribunal Slams Iran for Mass Murder
A non-binding legal tribunal in The Hague consisting of political victims of Iran’s regime in the 1980s issued an interim report in late October slamming Tehran’s clerical leaders for massive human rights... more...
For Iran, No Red Line Means Green Light
On Sept. 17, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations that the world must draw a clear “red line” around the Iranian nuclear weapons program, and tell... more...
